Sarkozy calls for new European treaty as euro enters make-or-break week - by Ian Traynor and Nicholas Watt

President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a new European treaty to save the single currency and to revive a European Union from fragmenting in its worst ever crisis.

Kicking off a week of high stakes politics that many say could decide the fate of the euro, Sarkozy delivered a major hour-long speech in the southern port of Toulon devoted to his vision of Europe's future.

While conceding that Europe's debt crisis and the collapse of confidence in the currency meant France had to surrender some of its sovereignty under a new punitive regime of fiscal discipline, Sarkozy's focus appeared to be on a new deal enabling the leaders of the 17 eurozone countries to strike political bargains among themselves.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is to go to Paris on Monday to try to hammer out the new eurozone blueprint with Sarkozy. She is to unveil her proposals and priorities in a speech to the Bundestag in Berlin on Friday, while David Cameron is also to go to Paris for discussions on the crisis with the French leader.

All of that precedes an EU summit next week that pundits and politicians are billing as Europe's last chance to secure a future for the euro. All the signs were that Paris and Berlin were determined to coin a common plan but remained far apart on the essentials.

For more: Sarkozy calls for new European treaty as euro enters make-or-break week | Business | The Guardian